Nasty surprise on homebuyer survey.. what to do now?

Davesnave

n217970 wrote: »

Just to jump in on the steps issue - Steps like this means it wont flood

Tell that to the people of upper Boscastle who were on a steep incline and had water coming in the back door and out at the front.

Run-off from sudden, extreme rainfall can strike where other forms of flooding cannot, so 'won't' is sometimes only 'unlikely to.'

wantonnoodle

We completed on our purchase in February. Ours was a 1929 3 bed semi, still with its original roof. We too needed 3 lintels replacing, along with cavity wall ties. The roof had an advisory stating it needed recovering in the near future.

Our mortgage lender put a retention on the mortgage of £5k, subject to the cavity wall ties and lintels being replaced. We negotiated with the vendor (who was a builder and joiner) and he paid for and had completed remedial works for both the lintels and the wall ties, which all came with an insurance backed guarantee, accepted by our mortgage provider.

We've just had the roof redone completely, new tiles, felt, battens, and the chimney repointed. The main repairs needed would have been the chimney stack and rebedding of loose ridge tiles, but to be honest, it would have cost not much short of the cost of full reroofing, as the scaffolding is a major portion of the cost. All in all, the full reroof, and also retiling of the roof over the bay at the front cost us £4100 + VAT. That's in Manchester, just to give an idea of cost.

We didn't negotiate the cost of the roof when we bought as our offer was only accepted after persistence as the vendor wanted significantly more, and we felt we had done well to get the lintels and wall ties remedied at his expense (that was £3k of works).

I guess the difference between your case and ours was that the market is very fast moving where we wanted to buy and houses like we were after don't come up very often. This house ticked all the boxes so it was to all intents our dream home, so we were keen to overcome whatever we had to. Had it not ticked all the boxes, I would have not hesitated in walking away.

botchjob

ses6jwg wrote: »

It's making me cagey though. It's highlighted that maintenance has been slack so what else is wrong that we can see?

First time buyer, right? All houses come with ongoing maintenance needs. The house has been valued in its current state, with a roof which - at some point - will need replacing, just as they all do. If it was a brand new roof, the house would no doubt have been priced accordingly. You can't ask for money off just because it may need replacing at some point further down the line...

As someone else said, if you want a faultless house then by off plan.
P*sh or get off the pot.

EachPenny

n217970 wrote: »

Just to jump in on the steps issue - Steps like this means it wont flood

Davesnave wrote: »

Tell that to the people of upper Boscastle who were on a steep incline and had water coming in the back door and out at the front.

Run-off from sudden, extreme rainfall can strike where other forms of flooding cannot, so 'won't' is sometimes only 'unlikely to.'

Yes, ask a drainage engineer for advice and they will tell you the only house which isn't likely to flood is one on the very top of a hill, and don't be too sure about that one either

The advantage of a house part way up a hill like the one the OP is looking at is that if it does flood, the water will hopefully drain away by itself, so you'll save the cost of pumping it out. I didn't say it was a big advantage though